


Shooting Star, Falling Star

by Forever_Sweet



Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: I needed to write something sad and comforting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-23
Updated: 2016-01-23
Packaged: 2018-05-15 19:07:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,396
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5796298
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Forever_Sweet/pseuds/Forever_Sweet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Bill is positive something is off about Mabel. So, why hasn’t anyone else noticed?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shooting Star, Falling Star

“Shooting Star?” Bill floated in the doorway and watched as the normally bright bundle of joy dabbed at her eyes with her sleeve.

“What’s up, Billy-o?” Mabel grinned and closed the notebook that she had been writing in a few minutes prior. 

“Is…” Bill was hesitant to ask if Mabel was alright, as he didn’t have a great concept on human emotions. Still, it was worrying to see her looking so…down.

“What are you writing?” He floated closer to her and didn’t miss the way her hands tightened on the notebook.

“Just my super impressive diary! Want to see how cool my mind really is?” She wiggled her eyebrows, but something about her eyes seemed almost dead.

“Yes.” Mabel’s demeanor froze and she blinked sluggishly like a computer booting up. Then she was all smiles again as she smacked the front of Bill’s body and knocked his tie sideways.

“Nice try, silly! You can’t just go around reading a girl’s journal! What are you doing here anyway? I thought you and Dipper were going to go on some great adventure today?” 

“Pine Tree’s girlfriend called and they went to see a movie.” 

“Oh…” Neither of them said anything and Bill floated in silence as Mabel picked at her nail polish.

“Shooting Star?”

“Yeeep?” 

“Do you ever feel lonely?” Bill could see the way Mabel’s brain turned its gears and she retook her false cheer with ease.

“What? Naw! I’ve got you and Dippingsauce!” She wasn’t wrong, but Bill felt like they weren’t enough sometimes.

“Want to watch a boy band marathon with me?” Bill didn’t, and he hated the music, but something in the way Mabel stared at him like she was holding back any hope. It looked like she was ready to be rejected and some part of her was silently reaching out.

“Suuuure, but I call dibs on the sprinkles!” He could hear Mabel’s laughter and shout of fake indigence as he zoomed out of the room.

~OwO~

Mabel was shuffling around the house, doing odd jobs and sighing occasionally. Bill watched her from the shadows as she made herself hot chocolate and dumped a massive amount of sprinkles into the cup.

Before she left the kitchen though she glanced at one of Stan’s pill bottles left out on the counter. She stopped and stared longer than Bill was comfortable with, but then she rolled her eyes and placed it back in its proper cabinet. 

She didn’t look at the cabinet again as she grabbed her mug and went into the living room. Bill expected her to turn on the TV and watch some cartoons or one of her favorite line dramas. Instead she just held her cup of hot chocolate and stared at the TV blankly. She looked lost in thought and the spell of melancholy didn’t lift until she took a sip of hot chocolate.

Then it was like a switch had been thrown and she flipped on the TV to Ducktective. 

~OwO~

“I hate it when I cry, it always ruins my make-up and my eyes look red…” Pacifica sniffled and Mabel handed her a tissue so she could blow her nose.

Bill had been hanging out with the twins until Pacifica had showed up on the doorstep in tears. Dipper had politely excused himself and Bill hung around in the background and tried to stay out of the way.

Apparently Pacifica’s parents had been acting horrible and Pacifica had left the house to avoid crying in front of them. 

“Don’t rub at your eyes, just dab at them with a tissue. That reduces the redness and gets rid of moisture so no one knows you’ve been crying!” Mabel beamed while she said it and Pacifica followed her advice. 

Bill had hoped someone more experienced with human emotions would notice it too, but Pacifica didn’t say anything about what Mabel had told her. The whole evening they talked about random things and eventually Dipper made a reappearance.

Nobody said anything about the almost pained way Mabel held herself.

~OwO~

It had been a pretty quiet evening altogether. Dipper had gone out with his girlfriend again and left Mabel with Bill to their own devices. Neither one of them had cared much about watching something. Instead Mabel settled down with her laptop to read some online something or another, and Bill did some of his lighter work.

Of course he didn’t get much done as he kept most of his awareness on Mabel. At some point she had stopped reading and had started staring off into the distance with a blank look. Then tears had started flowing. She hid her face and her shoulders shook with quiet sobs.

Bill unable to think of anything to do tapped on her shoulder and offered her a tissue. She took it and dabbed away the tears and gave Bill a shaky smile.

“Are you alright?” Bill had finally gotten the courage to ask, and Mabel looked almost taken aback by it.

“Of course I am! Why wouldn’t I be, silly-goose?” Bill pointed to the tissue wadded up in Mabel’s hand and she threw it into the garbage can.

“Pssh, just a sad part in the fanfic I am reading! She declared her love and he left her with just a note in the morning. Really sad stuff.” Mabel nodded in a sage-like way and Bill couldn’t help that he felt lied to. Still if she wasn’t going to spill her secrets to him, he wasn’t going to pull them out of her.

“Maybe you should read something happier.”

“Totally!” She gave him another grin and this time Bill definitely recognized disappointment and hurt in her eyes. He didn’t say anything though. How could he? But she wanted him too…

~OwO~

Mabel was crying great heaving sobs and Bill felt at a total loss. He floated next to her nervously and rubbed between her shoulder blades, but the tears wouldn’t stop.

He hadn’t expected the news of Dipper not making it home for dinner to have such an effect on her. It wasn’t like it was new occurrence either since Dipper had been spending even more time with his girlfriend as of late.

“Star, Pine Tree will be back later! He’s just not going to make dinner…” Finally Mabel’s sobs died down into little sniffles and she gently used her sweater sleeve to get rid of the tears.

“I know, I don’t know why I reacted like that, sorry Bill!” It was a shaky smile and Bill could see right through it. Right down to the sadness that seemed to have coiled its way around Mabel’s heart. Something clicked and Bill thought he might know what was wrong with Mabel and how to make it better after all,

“You are really lonely, aren’t you?” Mabel stared at him with wide vulnerable eyes and Bill felt like he was holding delicate glass in his hands.

“Dipper isn’t around as much as he used to…instead he prefers hanging out with his girlfriend more than me…” She whispered it and past the grief, jealousy and hatred leeched away at her. Further than that? Guilt at feeling like she did.

“It’s okay to feel that way, Shooting Star.” Mabel’s eyes snapped up from where they had drifted to the floor and this time her eyes were even wider than before.

“What?” She was at a lost, and so was Bill.

“You don’t have to bottle up your feelings. I, we don’t want you to hurt yourself because you think your problems are too small.” More tears were coming and Bill felt like he had said the wrong thing, but then Mabel hugged him tightly to her chest. 

He didn’t say anything and he didn’t dare move as Mabel cradled him close and soaked him with her tears. 

When she did finally let go he didn’t go anywhere and hovered next to her.

“I’m really sorry for burdening you with this, Bill…” Bill didn’t understand how Mabel’s feelings were a burden. He also didn’t understand how everyone around her had managed to miss how…sad…she was. Maybe it was a human thing? 

He wrapped his little arms around her and Mabel hugged him a lot more loosely this time. Even if no one else noticed, Bill knew he would never forget.

“You are never a burden, Mabel Pines.”


End file.
